Nagel CR, Holmquist US W70 Record at Doyle 5M

In
an effort to increase entries and boost up the competition, the race committee
of the Bobby Doyle Five-Mile Summer Classic (Aug. 9) put in a successful bid
this past winter to be part of the USATF-NE Grand Prix.

Was
it worth it? You be the judge based on these stats ÛÓ more than 700 registered
participants, two course marks, 16 runners under 25 minutes and a new American
record for age 70-74

Just
what we thought.

Under
ideal conditions at a cool 60-plus degrees, Morocco’s Mousaab Hadout led the
fleet-footed men’s field by covering the scenic Narragansett course in a record
time of 23 minutes, 51 seconds. In what turned into a fierce duel with the Boston
Athletic Association’s Dan Lowry, Hadout got the better of his rival, winning
by a mere second.

“The race was very good,” Hadout said. “This is my
first time racing in America. I felt very good being out here.”

Red-hot Laura Nagel, a
Providence College grad and New Zealand native, cruised to her second course
mark in as many weeks to capture the women’s title at 26:40, good for 45th
overall. The 23-year-old Nagel, who won the Run4Kerri four-miler with a CR of
21:39 on Aug. 2, outdistanced defending champion Heather Cappello of the BAA.
Cappello finished as the runner-up in 27:14 (65th overall),
six-seconds faster than her CR from a year ago.

“I didn’t think I
would run as fast as I did today so that was kind of nice,” Nagel said.
“I guess I was just hoping for the course record and just to win as well.
I am pretty happy with it.”

To stick with the
theme of record-setting performances, one was also set in the W70-74 category
by Jan Holmquist of Whirlaway RT, a multiple U.S. record-holder. She
established a new American mark of 36:37 to place 392nd among the 663
finishers.

With the five-miler
serving as a Grand Prix race, the fifth of seven events in the series, the
field was stacked with several runners high in the standings, including current
leader Matt Pelletier (13th, 24:45), Louis Serafini (third, 24:07),
Ruben Sanca (fifth, 24:22), Dan Vassallo (tenth, 24:33) and Teage O’Connor (15th,
24:48). All five were front in center, along with nearly 10 more, for the first
few miles of the ocean-side course.

Sanca, a two-time
winner of the New Bedford Half Marathon and a Cape Verdean Olympian, led the
pack through an opening mile of 4:43.

“We went out pretty
fast,” said Lowry, the Brown University record-holder for 5K at 13:34. “I
wasn’t taking splits or anything but it felt pretty quick for the first mile.
It surprised me that there was that many people running that fast. It was cool
today. I think temperature-wise, that helped a lot of people.

By 5K, passed in 14:55,
the lead posse was thinned to four with Sanca, Hadout, Lowry and Rop, the
recent Run4Kerri champion, pushing the pace.

Lowry, who is
currently training for the upcoming Philadelphia Half Marathon, decided shortly
after it was time to take over the front-running duties.

“Most of the race it
was fairly comfortable. I didn’t want to do any of the leading because it was
pretty windy today,” he said. “But then about 5K the leaders started to slow
down a little bit and I didn’t want other people getting back into the race
because I haven’t done much speed work and I wasn’t sure how my kick would go,
so I went to the front.”

With less than a mile
remaining on South Pier Road, it was clear it would be a two-person race and a
sub 24-minute clocking was possible with Hadout and Lowry breaking away and
taking advantage of the mostly-downhill final mile.

Approaching the last
turn for the last 200-meter stretch to the finish at Narragansett Pier School,
Hadout had a slight advantage over Lowry and thwarted a last-ditch effort by
the BAA runner in the closing stages to secure the $500 winner’s check and
additional $150 for a CR, breaking the mark of 24:09, set last year by Ben
Connor.

“Everything was
excellent,” Hadout stated. “The race was really fast. The way the finish was, I
had to go hard at the end.”

The BAA quintet of
Lowry, Harvey (fifth, 24:20), Julian Saad (seventh, 24:25), Brad Mish (21st,
25:18) and Mike Fisher (24th, 25:28) brought home the team hardware
with a combined time of 2:03.21. The Greater Boston Track Club was second
(2:09:04), led by Eric Couture’s 19th place effort in 25:16.

Nagel, who in
addition to her win at Run4Kerri was also first and fourth overall at the
Little Compton 4.8 miler in mid-July, enjoyed the favorable conditions that
greeted runners for the early-morning start at Pier School.

“It was pretty nice,”
she said. “Today’s race was a lot cooler than the races I have been doing.
There was a bit of a wind at parts of the course. Along the beach and stuff, it
was pretty nice. I come here most weekends so I kind of know the area pretty
well. It was nice. A couple of rises, but the hills weren’t too big. It went
pretty well. I think I went out a little too quick again, but it was fun.”

The BAA made a clean
sweep of the team championships with the women (2-26:59) taking the open
category, too. Representing the unicorn was Cappello, Katie Misuraca (92nd,
28:02), Kaela O’Neil (156th, 29:47), Mimi Fallon (186th,
30:44) and Ellen Callahan (206th, 31:15). Millennium Running was
second with a cumulative time of 2:32:42.